Jonathan Edward Colby
Artistic Executive Director, Worcester Youth Orchestras
Music Director & Conductor, Worcester Youth Symphony Orchestra
Born and raised in Middlesex, England, Jonathan Colby's conducting has been praised by the Cape Cod Times for its "precision and vitality." In 2017, he was presented the Key to the City of Worcester by Mayor Joseph Petty.
Jonathan began his musical career as a boy soprano with the St. Martin’s Choir and studied violin from an early age. As a conductor, he has gained recognition and awards for his interpretation in European and American operetta, including semi-finalist in the Kalman International Operetta Conducting Competition.
Jonathan enters his 13th season with Worcester Youth Orchestras (WYO), serving as Artistic Executive Director overseeing the entire WYO organization. During his tenure, he has grown WYO from one orchestra to four orchestras, as well as founding the jazz and wind ensemble program. WYO is now the largest youth orchestra program outside of metro Boston. At WYO, he conducts the 100 member Worcester Youth Symphony Orchestra, WYO’s flagship ensemble. He has toured with the orchestra to the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Montreal, Quebec and tours with them again to the Czech Republic & Slovakia in June 2025. During his tenure he has conducted The Worcester Chorus, The Nashoba Valley Chorale, The Worcester Children’s Chorus, First Unitarian and First Parish Choirs on works such as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Dvorak’s Te Deum, Faure’s Requiem, Bach’s Magnificat, Handel’s Messiah and Haydn’s Te Deum. His tenure has been marked by notable premieres: Coleridge-Taylor's The Bamboula and Ballade in A for Orchestra, Florence Price's Ethiopia's Shadow in America (MA Premiere) and Adoration
In May 2014, he was appointed Music Director & Conductor of the Farmington Valley Symphony Orchestra (CT). He is the second conductor in the orchestra’s history since its founding in 1982. The 75 member symphony performs 3 classical subscription concerts and two pops concerts each season. In 2024, he celebrated 10 years with the FVSO with a sold out performance of Saint-Saens’ Organ Symphony and Dvorak’s Te Deum with the Hartford Chorale at Christ Church Cathedral, Hartford.
Jonathan previously worked for the College Light Opera Company for 15 Seasons, 10 of which as Principal Conductor and Music Director. In 2013 he was awarded the WISE Foundation’s Conductor of the Year Award for his music direction and conducting of Die Fledermaus which the Cape Cod Time described as “dynamic” and full of “technical prowess”. At College Light Opera he garnered much praise from critics on his "commendable music direction" (Barnstable Patriot) and "inspired" (Cape Cod Times) interpretations of European and American operetta as well as classic American Musical Theater. In 2010, he was awarded a grant from the Victor Herbert Foundation to restore the entire score of the composer's comic opera Naughty Marietta. During his tenure he conducted notable CLOC premieres of The White Horse Inn, The Zoo, and Jerome Kern's Sally, as well as commissioned work for CLOC's 50th Anniversary The Pierpont Lobster Race.
In demand as a guest conductor and clinician he has conducted various NYSSMA, CTMEA, MMEA festival orchestras, as well as SUNY Purchase and NYC Opera Center, the Commonwealth Lyric Opera and Ip Annual Concerto Competition series at the Tsai Performing Arts Center. He has worked with the Nashoba Valley Chorale, Pioneer Valley Symphony Orchestra & Youth Orchestra (which he founded in 2014), Manchester Symphony Orchestra and the Connecticut Symphony Orchestra. For 10 years he was Director of Music at First Parish in Arlington conducting various choirs and collaborating with notable artists Ysaye Barnwell, Sol y Canto, Mark Miller and Dominick DiOrio.
Prior study was an apprenticeship in Salzburg and Vienna under the tutelage of Heinz Ferlesch (BCI), a BA in Music and European History from Drew University and an MM in Orchestral Conducting from UMass Amherst.
Jonathan is a member of the Conductors Guild and League of American Orchestras where he serves on the Board of Directors for the Youth Orchestra Division. In addition, he serves on the scholarship committees for the Greater Worcester Community Foundation.
Off the podium, Jonathan is an avid hiker, having completed the New England 4,000 footers in 2018 as well as Mueller Pass on Mt. Cook & Mt Rolleston in Arthur’s Pass in New Zealand and Ben Nevis & Macdui in Scotland. You may also spot him driving his 1920 Cleveland Six Tourer antique motor car.
Visit, www.jonathanbrennand.com, for more information.
Email Mr. Colby
Appointed August 2012
Music Director & Conductor, Worcester Youth Symphony Orchestra
Born and raised in Middlesex, England, Jonathan Colby's conducting has been praised by the Cape Cod Times for its "precision and vitality." In 2017, he was presented the Key to the City of Worcester by Mayor Joseph Petty.
Jonathan began his musical career as a boy soprano with the St. Martin’s Choir and studied violin from an early age. As a conductor, he has gained recognition and awards for his interpretation in European and American operetta, including semi-finalist in the Kalman International Operetta Conducting Competition.
Jonathan enters his 13th season with Worcester Youth Orchestras (WYO), serving as Artistic Executive Director overseeing the entire WYO organization. During his tenure, he has grown WYO from one orchestra to four orchestras, as well as founding the jazz and wind ensemble program. WYO is now the largest youth orchestra program outside of metro Boston. At WYO, he conducts the 100 member Worcester Youth Symphony Orchestra, WYO’s flagship ensemble. He has toured with the orchestra to the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Montreal, Quebec and tours with them again to the Czech Republic & Slovakia in June 2025. During his tenure he has conducted The Worcester Chorus, The Nashoba Valley Chorale, The Worcester Children’s Chorus, First Unitarian and First Parish Choirs on works such as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Dvorak’s Te Deum, Faure’s Requiem, Bach’s Magnificat, Handel’s Messiah and Haydn’s Te Deum. His tenure has been marked by notable premieres: Coleridge-Taylor's The Bamboula and Ballade in A for Orchestra, Florence Price's Ethiopia's Shadow in America (MA Premiere) and Adoration
In May 2014, he was appointed Music Director & Conductor of the Farmington Valley Symphony Orchestra (CT). He is the second conductor in the orchestra’s history since its founding in 1982. The 75 member symphony performs 3 classical subscription concerts and two pops concerts each season. In 2024, he celebrated 10 years with the FVSO with a sold out performance of Saint-Saens’ Organ Symphony and Dvorak’s Te Deum with the Hartford Chorale at Christ Church Cathedral, Hartford.
Jonathan previously worked for the College Light Opera Company for 15 Seasons, 10 of which as Principal Conductor and Music Director. In 2013 he was awarded the WISE Foundation’s Conductor of the Year Award for his music direction and conducting of Die Fledermaus which the Cape Cod Time described as “dynamic” and full of “technical prowess”. At College Light Opera he garnered much praise from critics on his "commendable music direction" (Barnstable Patriot) and "inspired" (Cape Cod Times) interpretations of European and American operetta as well as classic American Musical Theater. In 2010, he was awarded a grant from the Victor Herbert Foundation to restore the entire score of the composer's comic opera Naughty Marietta. During his tenure he conducted notable CLOC premieres of The White Horse Inn, The Zoo, and Jerome Kern's Sally, as well as commissioned work for CLOC's 50th Anniversary The Pierpont Lobster Race.
In demand as a guest conductor and clinician he has conducted various NYSSMA, CTMEA, MMEA festival orchestras, as well as SUNY Purchase and NYC Opera Center, the Commonwealth Lyric Opera and Ip Annual Concerto Competition series at the Tsai Performing Arts Center. He has worked with the Nashoba Valley Chorale, Pioneer Valley Symphony Orchestra & Youth Orchestra (which he founded in 2014), Manchester Symphony Orchestra and the Connecticut Symphony Orchestra. For 10 years he was Director of Music at First Parish in Arlington conducting various choirs and collaborating with notable artists Ysaye Barnwell, Sol y Canto, Mark Miller and Dominick DiOrio.
Prior study was an apprenticeship in Salzburg and Vienna under the tutelage of Heinz Ferlesch (BCI), a BA in Music and European History from Drew University and an MM in Orchestral Conducting from UMass Amherst.
Jonathan is a member of the Conductors Guild and League of American Orchestras where he serves on the Board of Directors for the Youth Orchestra Division. In addition, he serves on the scholarship committees for the Greater Worcester Community Foundation.
Off the podium, Jonathan is an avid hiker, having completed the New England 4,000 footers in 2018 as well as Mueller Pass on Mt. Cook & Mt Rolleston in Arthur’s Pass in New Zealand and Ben Nevis & Macdui in Scotland. You may also spot him driving his 1920 Cleveland Six Tourer antique motor car.
Visit, www.jonathanbrennand.com, for more information.
Email Mr. Colby
Appointed August 2012
